CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: ACT graduate student and postdoctoral fellow symposium

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Emerging research on later life
ACT Graduate Student / Postdoctoral Fellow Symposium
October 5th , Concordia University, Montreal

The research project Ageing + Communication + Technologies (ACT), housed in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University, is seeking proposals for its first graduate student and postdoctoral fellow symposium. The one-day symposium, titled “Emerging research on later life,” will be held October 5, 2017 at Concordia University. This event brings together emerging researchers from multiple disciplines working on matters related to ageing, and invites them to present on their recent work to colleagues as well as to senior researchers and ACT members from Concordia University, the Université de Montréal and Women, Ageing and Media (WAM), a feminist research group based in the UK.

We invite interventions that fit within the mandate of ACT, specifically, research understood to fall within one or more of its three axes: (1) agency in ageing: collaborative creativity and the digital arts in later life; (2) critical mediations: everyday life and the cultures of ageing; or (3) telecommunication technologies: ageing in networked societies. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from all disciplines are invited to participate, and artistic and other non-traditional contributions are welcome. Presentations by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will take place throughout the day. In the afternoon, Dr. Josephine Dolan from WAM will deliver a public keynote lecture on titled ‘Old age’, gender and the silvering of contemporary Hollywood cinema: economics and ideologies.

There are no registration costs. Lunch will be served and a reception will be held after Josephine Dolan’s keynote address. Specific location is to be determined. Spots are limited. Interested candidates should send a title, an abstract (max. 300 words), and a bio (max. 150 words) to application (at) actproject (dot) ca by September 1, 2017. Questions can be sent to Constance Lafontaine at admin (at) actproject (dot) ca.

Sponsors: 

The event is sponsored by Concordia University’s Feminist Media Studio, engAGE and  Department of Communication Studies. This event is also supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

ACT represented in three panels at the Human Computer Interaction conference in Vancouver

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Pictured: ACT members Barbara Ratzenböck, Francesca Comunello, Eugène Loos and Wendy Martin in Vancouver, Canada.

 

Eugène Loos launched the Intergenerational Gaming Platform at the Human Computer Interaction conference held in July in Vancouver, Canada. He also organized three panels: New media in the life of older people, Digital gaming among older populations, Intergenerational use of new media. The panels were presented as part of the stream on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population, and involved various ACT researchers, including Francesca Comunello, Benjamin Lille, Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol, Wendy Martin, Simone Mulargia, Barbara Ratzenböck, Margarida Romero, Andrea Rosales and Eugène Loos.

 

Eugène Loos, Professor at the University of Amsterdam, Senior Lecturer Utrecht University and ACT co-applicant, presents “Exergaming: Meaningful Play for Older Adults?”

 

 

Francesca Comunello, ACT researcher, presents “My grandpa and I ‘gotta catch ‘em all.’ A research design on intergenerational gaming focusing on Pokémon Go”

 

Benjamin Lille, graduate student at Université de Laval and ACT graduate student, presents “Intergenerational Techno-Creative Activities in a Library Fablab”

 

Barbara Ratzenböck, PhD student at the University of Graz and ACT graduate student, presents “Everyday Life Interactions of Women 60+ with ICTs: Creations of Meaning and Negotiations of Identity”

 

Wendy Martin, Lecturer at Brunel University and ACT co-applicant, presents “Visual Representations of Digital Connectivity in Everyday Life”

 

CREATIVE METHODS IN HEALTH AND WELLBEING SEMINAR SERIES

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Over two seminars in May and June 2017, this seminar series brought together inter/national researchers, social scientists, artists, policymakers and practitioners to explore and document the possibilities and limitations of a diverse range of creative methods and key methodological issues when researching health and wellbeing and everyday life. In particular, the seminar series focused on sensory, material, visual and digital methods. The seminar series was well attended and led to stimulating and engaging debates amongst and between the speakers and audiences and was positively evaluated. ACT members, Stephen Katz and Julia Twigg, provided excellent and thought-provoking presentations and discussions.

The seminar series was funded by the University Research Seminar Series Award, Brunel University London. 

Welfare, Health and Wellbeing Research Theme; Institute of Environment, Health and Societies; Brunel University London (Dr Wendy Martin, Dr Emma Wainwright, Dr Monica Degen and Dr Elizabeth McKay)

Update from ACT at the Graz International Summer School Seggau

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By Eva-Maria Trinkaus

The Graz International Summer School Seggau (GUSEGG) 2017 has started on July 2nd and through the long-standing cooperation with ACT, this year’s summer school is again host to one ACT module that focuses on aging in the framework of technologies. Line Grenier, who taught the first week of the module, has handed over to David Madden who will teach the second week, focusing on ageing and music, and ageing and material culture. This year, the module hosts 13 students from 12 different universities and 9 disciplines, and focuses on the “’art of aging in its intersections with the proliferation of computer-mediated communications and networked societies,” as described by the seminar professors.

In the lecture of the first week, Line Grenier shared her perspectives on aging and “The working force of concepts: critical reflections on ‘memory’ and its travels.” Grenier emphasized further emphasized the in-class topic of the seminar, and focused on the importance of memory in her lecture, addressing aspects such as memory loss, regaining memory through neuroscientific methods, and the nature of memory as a process that travels through space and time. David Madden will continue to delve into concepts related to age studies in week two, and also provide focus on the production of audio-based media capsules.

New Concordia University research centre on aging is looking for a coordinator

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The newly-formed engAGE: Concordia Centre for Research on Aging at Concordia University in Montreal is looking to hire a coordinator to oversee and manage its daily administrative and research operations. The deadline for applications is August 1, 2017. Interested candidates are invited to apply, and can download the complete job posting by clicking here.

Notes on the Aging Graz 2017 ENAS & NANAS Conference

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From April 27 to 30, 2017, the conference AgingGraz2017: Cultural Narratives, Processes & Strategies in Representations of Age and Aging took place at the the Medical University of Graz in Austria. AgingGraz2017 was the third conference of the European Network in Ageing Studies (ENAS), and also the first conference to be jointly organized by ENAS and its counterpart the North American Network in Aging Studies (NANAS).

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Elders Make Waves for World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2017

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On June 9, 2017, the members of community organization and ACT partner Respecting Elders: Communities against Abuse (RECAA), along with Le Groupe Herencias and Encounters Project, organized a public walk comprised of moving art installations in downtown Montreal.

This event was organized to mark World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, which takes place on June 15 2017.